3i8 THE FUTURE OF OUR AGRICULTURE. 



England." " Sweet Auburn " was peopled and happy. 

 Abroad grasping feudalism quickly asserted itself. NuUc 

 terrc sans seigneur rapidly became the rule. From the far 

 East, where the " kniaz " was lord, to the West, where 

 the peasant — as we older men remember from a book very 

 popular in our childhood (" The Peasant and the Prince ") 

 — was made to whip the ponds at night to keep the frogs 

 from disturbing the slumbers of the dwellers in the chateau, 

 the squire was king, the peasants were helots. But on the 

 other side of the Channel and of the North Sea the progress 

 of events absolutely turned the tables. // n'y a phis de 

 marquis ; il n'y a. plus de " dc " : il n'y a plus de " saint " ; 

 il n'y a plus de Sire {Cyr). The verdict of the Revolution, 

 which left the Marquis de Saint Cyr nameless claimed its 

 own upon the land and turned ancien regime rural France 

 into the most subdivided, and at the same time the most 

 democratic community in the world. All the same — ■ 

 barring German invasions — it is "la Belle France " still, 

 as merry and cheerful as in the days when Sterne mingled 

 in dance and merriment with its happy peasantry in sunny 

 Languedoc. In Germany a considerable portion of the 

 large estates formed under feudal rule have been cut up 

 into small properties. Until Government interfered with 

 its Home Colonisation scheme, the thing was done in a 

 distinctly mischievous fleecing sort of way. Agriculturally 

 speaking, much harm was done. The estate knacker had 

 no more mercy than the proverbial French sapeur, cutting 

 out the best bits of the property and spoiling many a farm. 

 However in spite of all this there is no gainsaying the fact 

 that the multiplication of holdings, however un-Trypherian 

 may have been the carving out of them, has economically 

 as well as socially benefited the district and the country. 

 I can speak of this feelingly. For my whilom property had 

 been a victim to the knacker's knife— and that knacker 

 one of the most ruthless and inconsiderate of his class. 

 Pieces of land had been sold off that I should have been 

 most happy to repossess myself of had they been in the 

 market — even at a higher price. However, in spite of this 

 damage done to the big farm, the people of the community 



